Ekaterina Khomyakova (15 July 1817, Simbirsk — 26 January [7 February] 1852, Moscow)Chereysky L. A. Языкова Екатерина Михайловна [Yazykova Ekaterina Mikhailovna] (in Russian). // Пушкин и его окружение / АН СССР. Отд. лит. и яз. Пушкин. комис. Отв. ред. Вацуро В. Э. 2-е изд., доп. и перераб. Л.: Наука. Ленингр. отд-ние, 1989. P. 521. was the hostess of a literary salon, sister of the poet N. M. Yazykov, scholar P. M. Yazykov. The youthful love of N. A. Motovilov, an associate of Seraphim of Sarov, with whom the future administrator of the Seraphimo-Diveyevsky Convent discussed his interest.
She was the wife of the philosopher and poet A.S. Khomyakov, his literary secretary, and the mother of the Chairman of the State Duma N.A. Khomyakov. Several lyrical poems by N. M. Yazykov and A.S. Khomyakov are dedicated to her. The poem The Resurrection of Lazarus, written by A.S. Khomyakov on the occasion of his wife's death, was set to music by S.V. Rachmaninov in 1912. V. Rachmaninov. A model for the portraits of Karl Gampeln, Shandor Kozin and A.S. Khomyakov. According to Gogol scholars, E.M. Khomyakova was the invisible centre of the spiritual life of the Moscow Slavophile community. The letters of E.M. Khomyakova with the reactions of the inhabitants of Zamoskvorets to the death of Alexander Pushkin are of interest for Pushkin studies.
A close friend of E.M. Khomyakova was N.V. Gogol,Sokolov B. V. Гоголь: энциклопедия [Gogol: encyclopedia] (in Russian). М.: Алгоритм, 2003. 544 p. (Энциклопедия великих писателей). Veresayev V. V. Гоголь в жизни. Систематический свод подлинных свидетельств современников [Gogol in Life. A systematic collection of authentic testimonies of contemporaries] (in Russian) М., Л.: Academia, 1933. 531 p. and he regarded her as one of the most remarkable women of his time. In confidential conversations with her, the very secretive writer was very open, telling her about his plans for the future. The early death of E. M. Khomyakova was an irreparable loss for Gogol as well as for A.S. Khomyakov. Under her influence, the lonely writer had thoughts of his own imminent death, increased ascetic and mystical moods, culminating in illness. In the end, as a result of this and other circumstances, Gogol abandoned creative activity, burned his works and died soon.Voropayev N. N. Н. В. Гоголь и его окружение. Материалы к биобиблиографическому словарю [N. V. Gogol and his environment. Materials for a biobibliographical dictionary] (in Russian) // Московский журнал. М., 2014. № 6 (282). pp. 46—57. Karpov A. A. Николай Васильевич Гоголь в его переписке. Предисловие [Nicolai Vasilyevich Gogol in his correspondence. Preface] (in Russian) // В кн.: Переписка Н. В. Гоголя. В двух томах / Николаев Д.П. М.: Худож. лит., 1988. V. 1. P. 27. (Переписка русских писателей)Zolotussky I. P. Гоголь. [Gogol] (in Russian) Издание шестое. М.: Мол. гвардия, 2007. pp. 471—472. (Жизнь замечательных людей: сер. биогр.; вып. 1082)Davydov M. I. Тайна смерти Гоголя. Ещё одна версия [The mystery of Gogol's death. Another version] (in Russian) // Урал. Журнальный зал в РЖ, «Русский журнал», 2005. № 1.
Biography Ekaterina Mikhailovna belonged to the old noble Yazykov family, her father was ensign Mikhail Petrovich Yazykov (1767–1819), her mother Ekaterina Alexandrovna Yermolova (1777–1831) was the daughter of the Simbirsk noble leader A. F. Yermolov. They had three sons: Peter, Alexander, Nicholas, and three daughters: Praskovya, Alexandra and Ekaterina. She was the youngest daughter, two years after her birth her father diedYazykova, E. V. Н. М. Языков. Творчество Н. М. Языкова. [N. M. Yazykov. Works of N. M. Yazykov] (in Russian) Кн. для учителя М.: Просвещение, 1990. 144 p. and Ekaterina lived only with her sick mother.Melnik V. I. Муза Мотовилова. Служка» преподобного Серафима и сестра поэта Языкова [Muse Motovilova. The "servant" of St. Seraphim and sister of the poet Yazykov] (in Russian) // Литературная Россия. М., 2006. Iss. 10.02, № 6.
N. A. Motovilov
According to S. A. Nilus, in her early youth Ekaterina was in love with Nicolai Alexandrovich Motovilov, an associate of Seraphim of Sarov. His infatuation with her began around 1829, when he was nineteen and she was twelve.Shkurskaya Е. А. Алексей Степанович Хомяков (1804—1860) и Екатерина Михайловна Хомякова (1817—1852) [Alexei Stepanovich Khomyakov (1804–1860) and Ekaterina Mikhailovna Khomyakova (1817–1852)] (in Russian) // Даниловский благовестник. 2000. Iss. 11. pp. 76—79. The Yazykovs' Simbirsk estates in Mokroy Bugurma and Russkaya Tsilna were located near the Motovilov estates. Two years later, N. A. Motovilov, who was in love, asked Seraphim of Sarov for a blessing for his marriage with Ekaterina. He described Ekaterina Mikhailovna to him as follows: "She is not a beauty in the full sense of the word, but very pretty. But above all I am enchanted by something gracious, divine that shines in her face, something that touches the human soul in a way that many beauties do not have in themselves".Urakova Natalia. «...Прошу вас выслушать сердцем мою „Прощальную повесть"...» (О духовных причинах смерти Н. В. Гоголя) ["...I ask you to listen with your heart to my "Farewell Tale"..." (On the spiritual causes of N. V. Gogol's death)] (in Russian) // Лепта. 1996. № 28.
According to Motovilov, Ekaterina Mikhailovna lived with her mother "as in a convent — she always read her morning and evening prayers, and as her mother was very religious and pious, there were often prayers and all-night services at her bedside. Having been brought up for more than ten years by such a God-fearing mother, she herself became like a nun. This is what I like most about her".
Motovilov's conversation with Seraphim of Sarov took place in October 1831, and then the elder revealed to the young man that he was destined for another bride — Elena Ivanovna Milyukova (b. 1823), at that time still a minor niece of Martha Diveyevskaya, whom, according to Seraphim of Sarov's prediction, he was to marry. Father Seraphim instructed the ardent young man in this way:Alekseev, Valery. Русское воскресение [Russian revival] (in Russian). Страницы Москвы — Богучаровские страницы. Дата обращения: 17 January 2015. — According to a new Synod decree, no man under 18 and no girl under 16 can marry. Shouldn't you wait eight or ten years for your God-ordained bride? How can you marry her now? You can't, she's still very young,' he gently explained to his companion, but Motovilov insisted.
— Who are you talking to me about? — he asked me.
— About Ekaterina Mikhailovna Yazykova.
— Ah!' he said. — Well, I am not talking about her, poor me, I am talking about the bride God has destined for you, and she, I assure you, your God, will not be more than eight years and a few months old.Nevertheless, for some time N. A. Motovilov continued to expect reciprocity from Ekaterina and planned to marry her. In May 1832, when Ekaterina was 14 years old (and he thought she was 16-17), he proposed to her, disobeying the elder, and received a final refusal, because she was already married to A. S. Khomyakov. The fact that Ekaterina Mikhailovna was already engaged to Khomyakov in 1832 was not directly mentioned by Motovilov in his notes: "And when it was refused to me in the hand of Ekaterina Mikhailovna Yazykova and General Mandryka in the house of her aunt Praskovia Alexandrovna Berh said to me that she was already engaged, then I had a stroke and I couldn't feel my hands nor feet, and my old disease affected me stronger".Motovilova N. A. Семейные истории. Докладная записка Высокопреосвященнейшему Исидору митрополиту Санкт-Петербургскому и Новгородскому от Николая Александрова Мотовилова [Family Stories. Reporting note to His Eminence Isidore, Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Novgorod, from Nikolai Alexandrov Motovilov] (in Russian). Записки Николая Александровича Мотовилова, служки Божией Матери и преподобного Серафима. Свято-Троицкий Серафимо-Дивеевский монастырь, «Отчий дом», М., 2009
For his disobedience Motovilov later earned Seraphim of Sarov's reproaches and the instruction to provide for the support of the Diveyev community, which Motovilov did. Motovilov's love for Ekaterina Mikhailovna lasted more than seven years until she married Khomyakov.In N. A. Motovilov's 1861 Report to His Eminence Isidore, Metropolitan of St Petersburg and Novgorod, the chronology of events is confusing: he puts his meeting with Catherine in 1830, the year he proposed to her, and then gives 1832 and 1833, and so on. In the same note, Motovilov described the circumstances of his arrest in 1833 by order of the acting civil governor of Simbirsk, Alexander Mikhailovich Zagryazhsky, who, in exhorting Motovilov to reveal the alleged secret society of conspirators, promised him, among other things, that that the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna herself would not only marry me to Ekaterina Mikhailovna Yazykova, whom I loved passionately at the time and who was then married to Alexei Stepanovich Khomyakov, but that the Empress herself would be happy to be our adopted mother.
The literary scholar V.I. Melnik doubts that it was all about Motovilov's enemies, because it is not known how the personal relations between Ekaterina Mikhailovna and Nicolai Alexandrovich developed. V. I. Melnik concludes from the subsequent events we that Ekaterina Mikhailovna was waiting for someone else.
V. I. Melnik suggests that if she had loved Motovilov as much as she loved Khomyakov, she would have married him; her letters show that she was an amorous young woman, the researcher believes. But the fact is that her future husband had a number of undeniable advantages that Motovilov did not. Motovilov was inferior to Khomyakov in terms of social standing, literary talent and capital. Motovilov was related to Khomiakov in religious depth, they were both landowners, but in everything else he lost to the future leader of the Slavophiles. Marriage to Khomiakov brought Yazykova to the centre of Moscow's cultural life and helped her to get closer to the leading Russian literary figures: Gogol, Pushkin, although this was also facilitated by her brother Nicolai's position in Russian literature. But Khomyakov himself was also an outstanding person, capable of turning the head of a provincial girl: poet, philosopher, artist, mechanical inventor, homeopathic doctor, possessor of encyclopaedic knowledge in 15 scientific fields, polyglot who learnt 32 languages, etc.Storozhko О. M. myslo.ru Новости. Тайны личной жизни Алексея Хомякова [myslo.ru News. Secrets of the personal life of Alexei Khomyakov] (in Russian). (12 May 2009)
Marriage
According to V. I. Melnik, Ekaterina Mikhailovna fell in love with Alexei Stepanovich Khomyakov immediately and irrevocably. Her letters to her brother were full of sentimental enthusiasm for her lover: "Oh Lord, I love him, if only he knew how much I love him!" Their love was mutual from the start, and their marriage began without any previous affairs.Somin N. V. Переправа. Алексей Хомяков: семейное воспитание. Катенька. Культурно-просветительское сообщество «Переправа» [Crossing the river. Alexei Khomyakov: family upbringing. Katenka. Cultural and educational community Pereparva] (in Russian) (26 July 2014)Koshelev V. A. «Прихоть головы»: заметки о лирике Хомякова // А. С. Хомяков: проблемы биографии и творчества. Хмелитский сборник: сб. ст. [Whim of the head: notes on the lyrics of Khomyakov // A. S. Khomyakov: problems of biography and creativity. Khmelitsky collection: a collection of articles] (in Russian) / отв. ред. В. А. Кошелев. Смоленск: СГПУ, 2002. Iss. 5. pp. 36—73.